Bill Halter is taking the economic populist road against Senator Blanche Lincoln, and it may well be the road to victory.
Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter is going after Sen. Blanche Lincoln on her 2008 vote in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in a new ad in their Democratic primary race.
In the commercial, Halter accuses "Washington and Wall Street" of lining "their pockets with insider deals and stick[ing] Arkansas families with the bill." While Halter doesn't mention TARP by name, a headline from the New York Times that reads "Congress approves $700 billion Wall Street bailout" is shown on the screen for the second half of the ad.
WaPo
Video of his new commercial after the fold:
Here's Bill Halter endorsing real finacial reform. Lincoln will filibuster real reform.
The Wall Street special interests and politicians in Washington have been lining their pockets with our tax dollars and sticking Arkansans with the bill. That’s got to stop.
Arkansas families are accountable for their finances, Wall Street should be too. We need to prevent future Wall Street bailouts, hold the banks that received bailouts accountable to the American taxpayer and continue to strengthen community banks. We must get lending and credit flowing to Main Street and small businesses while preventing the casino-like atmosphere in Wall Street from bringing down our financial system in the future.
I support the strongest possible reforms to do this, and I hope Congress addresses this in a way that gets real results for Arkansas families, not just another Washington shell game. We need an independent watchdog agency, stronger enforcement of what's already on the books, an end to sky-high corporate compensation, and better checks and balances on the more outrageous financial industry practices.
Bill Halter Issues
Meanwhile, Arkansas News columnist, John Brummett, slammed false attacks by "Bought-Off Blanche" aka "Wall Street Blanche," in an aptly titled column: Blanche goes bogus
On the day that Lt. Gov. Bill Halter formally accepted the draft of national left-wing activists and announced he would run in the Democratic primary against U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a person close to Lincoln told me Blanche was going to get tough.
There is a difference, though, between getting tough and getting bogus.
Lincoln’s first salvo was dishonest. The second was a smear
snip
It’s Blanche, actually, who has a public record that is obliging to multi-national corporations and drug companies. That doesn’t make her a bad person. It makes her a bit of a Republican.
snip
A confirmed Washington insider — that’s all she was, and is.
As Blanche sees the polling on the wall (she's failing quickly), I expect this to get really nasty. I would not be surprised with naything from her.
Here's a link to Bill Halter for Senate website. If we do nothing else this year, let's defeat Blanche Lincoln and nominate a real Democrat:
Bill Halter for Senate
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